In order to control the tobacco epidemic in Pakistan, the government needs to fully enforce anti-smoking laws to ensure that all public places are smoke-free.
According to a report on PTV, it is realized that the government also needs to increase the price of tobacco products to such an extent so as to make their purchase prohibitive in the country.
With the high prevalence of smoking (35 percent men and six percent women), public places are full of tobacco smoke, and with cigarette costs lowest in the region, Pakistan lags behind the rest of the world in its tobacco control efforts.
Today marks the “World No Tobacco Day 2012” across the world and Pakistan with the theme “Tobacco Industry Interference” according to which millions of tobacco users decide to give up this powerful addiction which kills almost six millions people every year.
World No Tabacco Day 2012 will educate policy-makers and the general public about the tobacco industry’s nefarious and harmful tactics. For anti-tobacco advocates the day provides an opportunity to celebrate their achievements in restricting the use of tobacco in the year gone by.
Smoking is considered bad for health as it causes and increases number of patients suffering from lung and mouth cancer, heart attack, stroke, pneumonia, asthma and hypertension. Additionally, each year, the government spends a substantial amount of foreign exchange on imported and expensive medicine needed to treat these tobacco-related diseases. Tobacco is not good for any country’s economy: in fact, it makes poor countries even poorer.
